Via CSNPhilly.com, the Flyers announced today that defenseman Andrej Meszaros will have back surgery and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks.

A small disc fragment in Meszaros’ lower back will be removed in the procedure that, based on the timeline provided by the club, will keep him out of the lineup until at least the beginning of May. That would mean he’ll miss the first round of the playoffs and possibly more.

Meszaros averages over 20 minutes a game and is third among Philadelphia blue-liners with 25 points, so this is a significant loss that’s coupled with the fact Chris Pronger is out for the season.

Fortunately for the Flyers, general manager Paul Holmgren was able to acquire defensemen Pavel Kubina and Nicklas Grossman prior to the trade deadline. Otherwise they’d be seriously thin on the back end heading into the postseason.

Of note, Kubina remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury. And it would seem the club is being fairly tight-lipped about his status.

For the second consecutive week, the Philadelphia Flyers goalie was named the NHL’s first star — this time after posting a 3-0-1 record while allowing just six goals, pushing the Flyers to within three points of the Eastern Conference-leading Rangers.

“He’s got his swagger back,” Flyers defenseman Nicklas Grossmann told NHL.com. “He’s been real good. This is the way we need him to play.”

Bryzgalov is the first player this season to be named First Star in back-to-back weeks.

Second star went to another oft-scrutinized goalie — Chicago’s Corey Crawford. Despite starting the week bolted to the pine, he notched three wins for the red-hot Blackhawks while allowing just three goals. Crawford came off the bench to relieve an ineffective Ray Emery (three goals on six shots) against St. Louis last Tuesday, backstopping the ‘Hawks to a 4-3 comeback win. He then proceeded to register victories over Dallas and Washington, pushing Chicago within four points of Nashville for fourth place in the West.

Speaking of Nashville, third star of the week went to Predators forward Martin Erat. He had 2G-5A-7PTS as the Preds went 2-1-1 last week, including being in on three goals in Tuesday’s big 5-4 win over Phoenix. The 30-year-old Czech now has 18G-38A-56PTS this year, one point shy of a career high set in 2006-07 and 1007-08.

The Philadelphia Flyers made a jersey modification on Tuesday, adding an “N” to the surname of defenseman Nicklas Grossmann. Even though he’s been playing in the NHL for six seasons as “Nicklas Grossman,” a secret has been in hiding.

“I just started off and they put it on the wrong way and I just kept it like that,” he told reporters following the Flyers’ morning skate. “My dad said something a while ago, why is it spelled wrong, and I said that’s the way it came and I didn’t change it.”

It was Flyers Director of Team Services Bryan Hardenbergh who noticed recently that Grossman’s name was spelled one way on his jersey and a different way on his passport.

“He (Hardenbergh) came up to me and said I notice your name (on your jersey) is a little different than what’s in your passport and I said that (the passport) is what it should be,” Grossman said. “He said we can change it for you, so I said OK.”

Glad that’s resolved. Hopefully it won’t take another six years for Grossmann to reveal his first name is actually Gary.

Monday, Feb. 27 is the final day for NHL teams to make trades for the 2011-12 regular season. The deadline is set for 3PM ET — be sure to check back here often as PHT will update the tracker throughout the day.